Alarmed that combat veterans are not receiving the treatment they need for post-traumatic stress and depression, state Rep. Anthony Verga is sponsoring a bill to create a commission to evaluate the mental health of veterans returning to the Bay State.

Verga, a Gloucester Democrat, is co-chairman of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Veterans and Federal Affairs. His bill would create an 11-member commission to study the "effects of war on the citizens of the commonwealth" and issue a report within one year on how to improve services for returning veterans.

"I am very confident that the bill will pass," Verga said. "The commission intends to investigate what the problems are."

The proposed commission would focus on psychological services available to those returning from war.

"We've had some incidents where people have gone for care and people haven't had a bed," he said of veterans trying to obtain mental health treatment through the Veterans Administration. "These people were suicidal and told to come back at another time."

State Sen. Bruce Tarr, R-Gloucester, said he will work with Verga to help push the bill through the House and Senate.

"I support the effort," Tarr said. "This is very important. I think it is something that is an absolute necessity."

Tarr believes that when veterans return from war, the public often focuses on the physical wounds they have suffered and tends not to consider the psychological trauma they have endured.

"We need to do everything we can to understand the two equally," Tarr said. "As state officials we can't stand idle."

Tarr also believes that the federal government has a responsibility to do something about the problem.

"It is something that the federal government needs to step up to the plate to," he said.

Verga is trying to push the bill as fast as possible, since the commission would only have until April 1, 2008, to write a report with its findings.

"Until we have the problem identified, we can't find the solution," Verga said. "Once the commission identifies the problem, then we will find a solution."

According to Verga, some 28,000 members of the armed forces have returned to Massachusetts since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and about 25 percent have faced "serious mental health challenges."

At a public hearing at the Statehouse late last week, many individuals spoke on behalf of the bill, including a 24-year-old woman who told a tear-jerking story about losing her older brother to a war-related psychological illness.

The veteran went to a facility to get help but the facility didn't offer him any therapy or treatment. Instead, he was told to come back at a later date but the man committed suicide.

"That one had tears in our eyes," Verga said.

"It's important that we act, but it's important that others act as well," Tarr said.

Michael Linquata, a World War II veteran and founder of the World War II Memorial Commission in Gloucester, knows what veterans face when they return to society after facing the horrors of war.

"Most veterans in combat are sufferers," Linquata said. "It's a condition that arises when you think about the battle. It's a mental reflective response to the memory of any battle that the person has been in."

Linquata added that war in any form is an extremely traumatic experience and some veterans are affected by the experience more than others. That is why he supports Verga's bill.

"I support anything that will help the veterans in that respect," Linquata said.